This blog has nothing to do with gorillas (though I love 'em)...fellow bloggers have inspired me to share vintage images of Disneyland from my personal collection. But don't be surprised if you see something from a World's Fair, Knott's Berry Farm, or someplace else that is cool!

Monday, December 09, 2013

It's time for the second installment of Christmas Parade photos, circa 1996 - graciously shared with GDB by Ken Martinez. Thanks Ken!

When we left off the last time, we saw some Chinese "toys", and they can still partially be seen in the bottom of the frame. Atop the float is none other than Roger Rabbit! Looks like he's going to be pumping some iron while he's up there… somehow I picture the weight falling all the way to the street, with Roger's arms stretched 25 feet long.

Sometimes I want to wear my PJs all day just like Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore are doing. Pooh seems to have slimmed down a bit from the old days, I guess he has cut down on the Hunny (Blogger's autocorrect will only let me type "Hunny" if it is capitalized - otherwise it changes the word to "funny"). I wonder how they find young kids who are able to participate in regular parades… do they pick different children from among park guests and let them march in a single parade?

Meanwhile, a dancer in a music box can be seen in the distance.

Snow men and women boogie down as only snowfolk can do. I think I detect a do-si-do, but it might be a waltz. Giant walking snowflakes look like escapees from the old "Adventure Thru Inner Space".

Hey, the snowflakes are on roller skates! What a fun idea. I hope they don't get their wheels stuck in the streetcar track. Notice the lights on top of the buildings for the nighttime version of the parade.

I love this group of cooks, their costumes remind me of Maxfield Parrish and his illustrations for the book "The Knave of Hearts" (which I assume was the inspiration).

Mmmm, nothing says "Christmas" like gingerbread! If I had designed these, I would have given at least one of them a crescent-shaped bite out of the top of its head.

Wow, we've got Lumiere (from "Beauty and the Beast"), Cinderella and Prince Charming (from… well, you know), and behind Lumiere we can just see Snow White and her prince.

Never fear, we'll have one more post of parade photos from our pal Ken Martinez!

11 comments:

Great Christmas parade pics, Ken! The parade seems to be going around Town Square clockwise instead of counterclockwise.....unless it wasn't going around Town Square at all, and it was just going straight out the regular parade gate next to the Mad Hatter Shop. That's unusual....I wonder what was going on?

Blogger's autocorrect will only let me type "Hunny" if it is capitalized - otherwise it changes the word to "funny"

My hunny Valentine,Sweet nectar Valentine ,You get me stuck in the trees,You’re so delectable,So inaccessible,You get me chased by the bees.Is my figure less than svelte?Is my waist too big for belts?When I go where Rabbit dwelt,Can I get out?But don’t change a bit for me;Don’t care if doors fit for me.Stay, hunny Valentine, stay!Each day is Valentine’s day.

I love the Christmas parade! I've never gotten to see the Halloween parade live, but I dare the Grinchiest McGrincherson to see a Disney Christmas parade in person and and not feel his heart grow a couple sizes. I had pneumonia the last time I saw one, and I swear I floated out of the park feeling like the love child of an elf and a reindeer. Thank you so much for sharing, Ken!

1.When I see the M alphabet block with Mickey's face, I hear the "C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me" song, but with "M is for Mickey" instead. And I never noticed before, but my cat's fluffy cheeks look almost exactly like Roger Rabbit's. With her mask that looks like Meeko's, I guess she's basically just a Disney pastiche.

2.It's the vertical stripes that make Pooh look so slim. What fun it must have been for the child performers who got to pillow fight with Tigger in the parade!

3.The raised eyebrows, rubbing noses, and touching "areas" on the snow couples are pretty suggestive for a family park! And they've got some pretty good-sized carrots going on there, too! I'm going to assume that the ghost of Uncle Walt insisted on wedding rings underneath the mittens.

4.Oh, man, I really want to be a skating snowflake! They must have looked amazing at night. They had something on roller skates in the last Christmas parade I saw, but I think they were just elves or some kind of Christmas weirdos.

Of course, the last time I was on skates I hit one tiny crack in the pavement, came down like a ton of bricks, and broke my hip clean through. Then the ambulance got broadsided on the way to the hospital. So, my skating snowflake days are probably over before they started.

5.I had to look up that Maxfield Parrish book - absolutely charming! If there's one thing I learned at my mother's knee, it's the Christmas is all about rickrack. Sure, baby Jesus and peace to all men and family and presents and all that jazz is OK, but if you ain't got rickrack, you ain't got Christmas.

6.Grandma used to make a gingerbread man or lady for every relative, friend, and acquaintance at Christmas, with your name written on it in royal icing that must have been at least 33% plaster of Paris. The cookies were hard as mahogany to survive mailing to distant cousins, but if you dunked them long enough they were edible. I wasn't prepared for how emotional I would get the first time I saw gingerbread men after she died. Still get a bit misty.

My fanwank is that Snow White's unnamed prince is really named Rainier, like the late Prince of Monaco. He could be called "Rain" for short, so that when they travel through the land, their people could cry out, "Hail, Rain and Snow!"

More great pics, so much to see! I've always liked the rollerskating snowflakes, and I really like Cindy in a silver colored dress more than the blue hue seen these days. It's more true to the film. Thanks again, Ken!

Nanook - I'm glad you're enjoying these. I couldn't think of a group of people I’d rather share these with than you guys. Reading the daily comments from the readers of Major’s blog has been a real highlight and joy for me. I'm glad I could contribute something.

TokyoMagic!, Good eye! The Candlelight Procession was going on that evening and the Town Square area in front of the Main Street Station was covered with seating that day. Since the parade route was blocked, it traveled directly off Main Street west towards the gate next to Mad Hatter, thus skipping the Town Square loop. I remember that because I watched the Candlelight Procession that very evening.

Melissa - Thanks to you, I’ll now look at my Disneyland Christmas parade photos in a whole new way. I love your comments on each scene; especially the one about the snow couples.

PsySocDisney - You’re right about the Cinderella scene. It does match the look of the film closely. There's something about blending Disney with Christmas together that seems to amp up to a magic of both.

Thanks again to all for the kind comments. I'm glad you're enjoying these.

Nanook, Ken has some nice non-Disney Christmas stuff to share with us, too!

TokyoMagic!, only you would notice a detail like that! I certainly wouldn't.

Melissa, Disney needs to get Jim Cummings (aka the voice of Pooh) to sing that! I've seen a couple of the Disneyland Christmas parades (since I tend to go in November for some reason). Cookie cookie cookie start with "C". Pooh has a tapeworm! The smooth, featureless surfaces of the snow folk seem pretty safe to me!

Melissa continued, I can't tell, are you joking about the skating accident? If not, YEESH! I would be done with skating forever. Maxfield Parrish has always been one of my all-time favorite golden-age illustrators. Even your Grandma's rock-hard cookies sound good to me. What would Snow White and Prince Rainier's kid be called?

Nanook, he had a nice mountain named after him too!

PsySocDisney, have you seen the light-up dress that Cinderella wears in the Tokyo electric parade? It was pretty neat!